i like to eat.

Oh my. I made it. I seriously made it.

I managed to follow a week of dinners without any glitches or spontaneous weeknight dinners with friends. Well, actually, a friend did invite us to dinner and we had to decline. I was committed to finish this personal challenge!

The last meal, on Friday night was spaghetti with sweet potatoes and ricotta.

This was my least favorite dish out of the entire week. Kind of disappointing, since I wanted to leave with a bang.

The pasta was dry, even though I added extra butter and oil into the dish. I was hoping the ricotta would melt more and create some sort of sauce, but nope, it didn't. The flavors of the sweet potato, ricotta and spaghetti were fine, but I personally like more sauce on my pasta dishes.

This week, I was able to broaden my (non-existent) culinary skills and try new flavors. I'm quite happy with all the dishes. Out of all the meals, I liked Monday night's the best. It's something I'd usually cook and maybe that's why I liked it the most.

The article in Real Simple was actually for a month's worth of easy dinners, so technically, I have three more weeks of this, if I really want to step it up. haha. I'll take it one week at a time, for now. :)

My second to last day of this week long dinner challenge! Yay!

For Thursday night, I made spicy orange-glazed drumsticks with green beans.

The recipe called for corn bread muffins. I thought I had a box of Jiffy in my pantry. Whoops, nope. A quick replacement was some left over rice from Tuesday night.

I usually hate eating off the bone (too much work), but these drumsticks were tender and the meat easily fell off. I didn't taste too much of the orange flavor and I think it's because the chili sauce I used was pretty spicy. Next time, I'll use less hot sauce to bring out the orange flavor more.

And the perfect cold drink to compliment this meal?

Tripel Karmeliet, my favorite Belgium beer.

   

Click here to download:

Weeknight_Dinner_Part_4_tag_fo.zip (470 KB)

I'm half way there! Yay. Wednesday night - roasted pork with Brussels sprouts and apricots.

I like Brussels sprouts. The first time I ever had them was at Houston's in San Francisco. They were so good. I couldn't believe all these years, I was missing out on a yummy vegetable. I tried to cook Brussels sprouts once and it was a disaster. I couldn't even finish it and had to throw it out. The main culprit could have been because I didn't use fresh sprouts. I was crossing my fingers that this dish would turn out good.

I've never cooked pork tenderloin before, so I was excited to cook something new. It took my oven slightly longer (an extra 10 minutes) to cook. I wasn't sure if the pork was thoroughly cooked or not, so I was paranoid that I was going to poison my boyfriend and I. But, I kept checking the meat and it was finally cooked all the way. The pork was extremely tender and moist, no dry meat here! I was pretty proud that I nailed it my first time.

The Brussels sprouts and apricots were a nice compliment to the pork. This time, the sprouts were fresh and delicious.

I wouldn't mind cooking this dish again. Maybe I'll make some sort of apricot sauce for the pork next time.

Related: Weeknight Dinner, Part 1, 2

Tuesday night was beef and boy choy stir-fry, as part of my challenge to cook every day of the week and to follow a menu in Real Simple magazine.

Another easy recipe to follow, although I accidentally over cooked the bok choy. I was doing too many things at once, there's a reason why most chefs have a mise en place (everything prepped before hand and reachable)!

The flavor of the flank steak was actually pretty good. It was marinated in rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and brown sugar. I'd use this marinade again and next time, I won't over cook the veggies! :)

   

Click here to download:

Weeknight_Dinner_Part_2_tag_fo.zip (417 KB)

Related: Weeknight Dinner, Part 1

I was reading "A Month of Easy Dinners" in the October issue of Real Simple magazine a few weeks ago. I never follow these types of planned out dinners or menus because my week's pretty spontaneous and I can rarely commit to cooking for an entire week. Plus, I usually pick out just one dish in a menu that looks interesting to try out.

I was watching Check, Please!, a TV program that reviews restaurants by local residents. This particular episode featured Udupi Palace, a Southern Indian restaurant in Berkeley. Wanting to try a new restaurant and cuisine, this place seemed like the perfect choice.

The menu was hard to decipher. I had no idea what most of the items were and the descriptions were vague. Luckily, I remembered a few dishes that were mentioned in the TV show.

I ordered a sampler type of dish called thali. Not 100% sure what all the dishes were (would have helped if waiter explained). There was some sort of soup, rice, masalas, sweet chickpeas and lentils - all very different textures and flavors. What the most interesting thing was you'd eat all these dishes with a fried "puffy bread (real description)" called batura. It was huge and quickly deflated once I broke a piece off. The taste was mild and served as a utensil to scoop the different dishes.

Jason ordered a dosa, Indian crepe, with spinach and spicy potatoes. The dish came with a cute little vada or lentil donut. It was quite large and filling, enough to feed the both of us.

Udupi was affordable. It only cost us a little less than $20 for the both of us. The food was good and interesting, but my stomach disagreed soon after leaving the restaurant. I think my stomach wasn't used to all the different flavors and spices. :(

     

Click here to download:

Something_New_tag_food_indian_.zip (741 KB)

After most of the festivities for Ray and Aki's wedding, we finally had the time to have dinner with them before they left. We went to Dona Tomas in Oakland because Mexican food options are minimal in Japan.

The restaurant is cute, dark and intimate (as you can see from my poor pictures). They also have a romantic outdoor patio area with lights.

We ordered guacamole that came with house made chips. Pretty good, nothing too special.

Jason and I split our entrees - carnitas and carne asada, so we could share. The carnitas was a slow-roasted shredded pork with Mexican spices and served with tortillas, rice and pinto beans. The meat was a little dry and salty, but not bad. The carne asada on the other hand, was very salty. The dish was thinly sliced grilled beef with a hot chile sauce, served with pinto beans and a corn and zucchini pudding. I don't remember what the pudding tasted like, I just couldn't get over the saltiness of the entree.

The ambiance of Dona Tomas is cute, but I wouldn't go back. The food lacked depth and flavor, it was just too salty for my taste buds.

   

Click here to download:

Dona_Tomas_tag_food_mexican_oa.zip (475 KB)

Was about to make some dinner, opened a container of leftover rice and saw.....purple rice?! Don't know how only a few grains turned purple..and from what? I thought rice would turn green or just smell bad if it's rotten.

Needless to say, into the trash it went! Unsolved mystery.

To celebrate Tony's birthday, several friends and I went to House of Prime Rib for dinner. I've been to this fine establishment a handful of times and every single visit brings happiness and good food.

You go to HOPR to eat prime rib and really nothing else, therefore, the menu's short. There is a fish option, but seriously, you go there to enjoy their legendary prime rib.

An iceberg lettuce with sliced beets, carrots and cabbage in a house made thousand island-like dressing is tossed table side. I really like this salad, but the dressing is strong and I wish they wouldn't drench the lettuce.

There are four options of the size of cut you want. I always get the smallest portion, city cut, because I can never eat it all. Medium please. Many people say that's "overcooking" it, but hey, I don't like blood on my meat. Your portion is carved table side from a silver cart.

The prime rib dinner comes with a choice of creamed spinach or corn, mashed or baked potato and an amazing Yorkshire pudding. The creamed spinach (my choice always) is not heavy, yet very creamy. I also always get mashed potatoes which is whipped super smooth and topped with gravy. The Yorkshire pudding is definitely my favorite part of the meal. It is light and delicious when you soak it in the au jus...yummy.

For the birthday boy, we had a super thick, chocolate cake. I am not a fan of chocolate cake and this is the epitome of why I don't like them. Too thick, too chocolate-ly and too much overly sweet frosting. Just too much. After two bites, I was done - stuffed from the meal and from the over kill of sweetness.

Had a fabulous time with everyone, like any other time at HOPR. Thank you and happy birthday Tony!

                 

Click here to download:

092109_hopr.zip (2394 KB)

Remember a few months ago I went to a dinner tasting at Ondine? The big wedding day for Jason's older brother finally came and we got to compare what we had at the tasting to the real thing.

     

Click here to download:

The_Big_Day_tag_ondine_sausali.zip (700 KB)